The pair first appeared on "America's Funniest Home Videos." Then the David Letterman show, the "NBA Inside Stuff" show, and Letterman's 10th anniversary show (where Bud got more applause than Bill Murray and Bob Dylan).

DiCicco contacted every team in the NBA about halftime shows and last season the duo appeared at three games (Lakers-Clippers, Hornets-Pacers, Knicks-Pistons).

He hopes to do 20 more halftimes this coming season.

Local television did a spot on Air Bud, which led to CNN, which led to an invitation from the governor of Illinois for Bud to attend the state fair as a mascot. DiCicco and Bud leave for the fair Friday.

DiCicco is doing a screenplay called "Mascot," about a losing NBA team that discovers a basketball-playing dog and suddenly starts winning.

He hopes a toy company will discover Bud. He hopes to leave his waiter job soon and manage Bud full time.

At the Illinois fair, DiCicco will talk to a man from Kal-Can, the dog food company. And he'll have bundles of Air Bud T-shirts to sell.

"Buddy has made me what I am today," DiCicco says.

Campaign Rhetoric

First-person politics.

* No nudes is good nudes.

Vexed by lack of coverage for its U.S. Senate candidate, June Genis, the local Libertarian Party Central Committee voted to have her do something that would be sure to gather notice.

To wit: A nude bungee jump off the Union-Tribune building in Mission Valley. (Nobody said Libertarians don't have a sense of humor.)